Learning to Keep Calm and Carry On

We’ve all seen the phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On”. If you’re like me then you know how hard that can be. After doing a little research on the phrase, I realized just how easy it is to keep calm and carry on when we are the Lord’s children.

In 1939, the British government produced motivational posters to help boost the morale of the citizens during the threat of war. There were a set of three posters printed, two of which were posted throughout the nation. The final poster with over 2 million posters printed, was never publicly displayed, and it was forgotten about. It wasn’t until a copy of the poster was found in a bookstore in Alnwick, Northumberland, England, in 2000, when it was brought to light and later on commercialized.

LEARNING TO KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

The now famous red poster with simple white lettering is topped with a symbol (just like the other 2 posters), the crown of King George VI.  The crown symbolized an authority in control and could be trusted in a time of need. With the threat of war growing stronger, the people needed someone to look to, someone they could trust.

As Christians, we can learn two things from this poster.

Our Authority:

We have an authority who is mightier than the English crown or any government. We serve the God who created those who are in leadership. While these men and women are not perfect and make mistakes that can hurt us, God is the only authority who is perfect and doesn’t make mistakes. He has our best interest at heart. Only God is in complete control and is trustworthy in our times of need. And with the Lord, all things work together for good. (Romans 8:28)

Our Actions:

Keep calm and carry on. Those are hard words to swallow when faced with a difficult situation. Fear and worry sets in and we let them overtake our lives which in turns keeps us from carrying on. But that is not what the Bible tells us to do. 

We are to rest in the Lord because He is our Resting Place. When we turn to the Lord for rest, we can carry on in the strength that He gives.

In uncertain times, we are to put our faith in the Lord. No matter how dark a pit we are in, we belong to Him.

While it is not always easy to carry on as we did before the situation hit. We can still carry on when we focus on one day, one hour, or one minute at a time. We don’t have to run a beautiful race, we just have to run and finish it. (2 Timothy 4:7)

We are not promised bad things won’t happen in our lives, but we are promised that God will be with us at all times.